


The Empire Cat Café

by JesterTheCleric



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27746554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JesterTheCleric/pseuds/JesterTheCleric
Summary: A modern AU where Beau meets Yasha while working at a cat café.
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	The Empire Cat Café

**Author's Note:**

> So fun fact, I actually wrote this one-shot for a fanfiction class. This is also my first AO3 fic (maybe my only one, idk what future me will do) since I grew up on Wattpad. I apologize if I tag it wrong, or if formatting is weird, I have never done this before. Anyways, I thought I would post it so that others could read it and enjoy it.  
> Also, for fun, these were the "tags" I added to the fic for when I turned it in: First person; Basically everyone is gay; Everyone also loves Jester Lavorre but in a “she’s just so awesome” way; I’ve never been to a cat café and don’t know how they work but I miss my cat and so this is how I get through the day; Gay Brain
> 
> Enjoy ^-^

I. Hate. Opening. Working the morning shift is bad enough, but opening? Opening can fuck right off, especially on a Monday. But hey, at least Caleb is stuck here with me, and I get free coffee. He is probably as tired as I am, if not more tired, and if he can get his ass out of bed to be here at 6 in the morning, so can I. Though to be honest, I think working here is the best part of his day.

As I finish getting the last of the coffee beans ready, Caleb flips the sign on the door and turns on the neon light. The Empire Cat Café is now open for business. Right on time at 7:15, an extremely awake girl with blue hair opens the door, making the bell ring. Tailed by 3 cats, she winds her way through the tables to the register. _Oh gods I'm not ready for this this early in the morning, ok ok ok retail voice activated._

“Hi! What can I get you?”

She smiles at me. “Beau, you and I both know you aren’t a morning person and I am. You don’t need to use your retail voice with me, but I’ll have my usual.”

My shoulders visibly slump with relief. “I know Jester, I just have to get my people practice in. One unicorn mocha coming right up, that will be $6.79, but you know that already.”

She has already given me a 10-dollar bill, and I ring her up. She comes in every day at the same time, and always orders the same thing. She seems to know everyone here, but I’m not surprised. She has a really likeable personality, you know? I’ve never asked her why she goes by Jester though. I assume it was some high school nickname that she uses now, but I’ve always just been too nervous to ask her name. It seems 

like something I should have done when we first met, and now it’s been too long so I feel like it would be weird.

Caleb finishes her drink, and hands it over. “Extra whipped cream, Freundin von mir.”

She curtseys and takes the drink, leading a small trail of cats to her usual couch. There, she cuddles with a few cats before getting out her drawing tablet. I don’t know what she draws, but she must do it for a living, since she draws here for a few hours every day. After a bit, the shop gets more active. A few of our cats are adopted out, a few people just come by to say hi to their favorite cats, and the shop is generally livelier. I can deal with lively, now that I've woken up properly.

About an hour before our shift ends, Caleb’s boyfriend and someone I don’t recognize enter the café. They make their way near the register, where Caleb steps out from behind the counter to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek. “Guten Tag, Molly dear.”

“Glad to see you too m’ dear. Figured I would stop in to get something to drink, as well as introduce you to my new roommate.” The other figure raises a hand and does a quick wave.

The two of them are quite a sight. Molly, a guy with very purple hair and many tattoos, and this new roommate of his, an extremely pale and rather tall woman, with black hair moving to white at the ends, and beautiful eyes with heterochromia. Shit. She’s beautiful. She probably isn’t gay… unless? _Oh no, why must my brain be like this, why am I gay for every pretty woman who has existed ever?_

She extends her hand, and Caleb shakes it. “I’m Yasha, I'm an old friend of Molly here. When I mentioned that I needed a place to stay while I get my footing here in town, he offered me his place. So yeah, I guess I'm his roommate now?”

She notices me staring at her, and holds her hand out to me as well. _Shit, I'm staring at her, why am I like this?_ I shake it, failing to put on a face that doesn’t read as “I am very gay for you right now.” Now, I am very not good at reading faces, but I could almost swear that she is doing the exact same face at me. Before either of us can say anything, Molly interrupts the gay silence. “I’m in the middle of giving Yasha here the full tour of town, so we can get something to go and I can continue with the tour.”

They order, Molly getting simultaneously the sweetest and strongest drink he can physically buy, and Yasha getting a simple black coffee. I watch them leave out of the front door, only pulled back to reality by another customer clearing their throat to get my attention.

The rest of the day is filled with thoughts of Yasha, even well after my shift is done. I doubt I will ever see her again. After all, when would I ever see the roommate of a coworker’s boyfriend? Gay Brain works in mysterious ways, and the only reason I eventually fall asleep is exhaustion. If I wasn’t so tired, I doubt my brain would have allowed me to even get sleep thanks to thinking about her.

The start of the next day is much the same as the last. I open with Caleb, serve Jester her drink, and drink outrageous amounts of coffee to get my retail voice working. Around halfway through my shift, Yasha comes in the door to my surprise. She moves carefully through the tables, so as not to disturb any cats, and makes her way to the register.

“I’m sorry that our meeting yesterday was so short, Molly does that. A lot. I really liked the coffee yesterday, and I was in the area so I figured I would come by and properly introduce myself.” She holds out her hand, same as before. “I'm Yasha. And you are…?”

I clasp her hand. “Beauregard, but you can call me Beau. Everyone does.”

“Nice to meet you Beau, now that I live in town, and now that I know I like the coffee here, hopefully I can stop by more often, but for now I am afraid I have to go. But not before coffee.”

She orders a black coffee to go. I make sure that I am the one to make it, and I write my number on the cardboard sleeve for the to-go cup. Hopefully this isn’t too cheesy, but it’s a spur of the moment decision that Gay Brain has made, and I can’t back out now. She takes the drink and leaves, scratching a cat under its chin for a few seconds before opening the door. She didn’t seem to notice the number, but hopefully she will later.

My day continues as normal, with the exception of my heart beating ever so slightly louder and faster after she leaves. Of course, when I sleep, instead of Gay Brain making me lose sleep over Yasha, it is Anxiety Brain that keeps me awake, as I have not received a text from her yet. Did she see the number? Did she not see it? Did she see it and never wants to talk to me ever again because I was being a creep by giving her my number? I am kept awake by these thoughts until once again exhaustion takes over and lets me sleep.

I don’t see Yasha the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that, though that day is pretty busy as I am teaching a new hire the ropes. Name is Caduceus, I don’t know who came up with that name, but he knows tea pretty well, and he is fairly chill, so we get along.

At this point, my Anxiety Brain is freaking out. I am very gay for this woman, and I am so worried that I was too weird on Tuesday. On Saturday, my day off, I am awoken by a text on my phone from an unknown number.

“Hey, this is Yasha. I hope I got the right number. I kept meaning to text you but kept forgetting, sorry about that. I am free today if you want to meet up?”

I release a held breath that I didn’t even realize I was holding. She got my number! She texted me! I add her number into my phone, and quickly reply.

“Yep, this is Beau, you have the right number! Today is my day off so I am free all day, is there something you were interested in doing?”

Typing, typing, typing. “Nothing specific, even though Molly gave me the tour I still don’t know what is really here, if you have any suggestions, I would be open to them.”

Wonderful, Gay Brain has been thinking of cool date ideas ever since I met her, I have lots of suggestions. “There is a lovely brewery just outside of town, they do tours and taste testings, I think they’re open today if you want to do that?”

More typing. “That sounds like fun! Is it Brenatto Brewery? Molly mentioned it to me but didn’t show me where it was. I'm sure I can find my way there, shall I meet you there say, around 3?”

_Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes._ “That works! I will see you then!”

We have a date! Hopefully this is an actual date and she doesn’t think we want to just be friends! Even though I have a few hours, I spend some time getting a nice outfit together – one that says, “I like how I look, but I'm not dressing up to impress anyone or be fancy.” It takes way too long to get the outfit together. By the time I'm heading out of the door, I barely have enough time to get to the brewery by 3.

As I pull up to the brewery in my beat up old Volkswagen Beetle, I can see Yasha is already there, leaning on the front hood of… a sedan? Huh, I thought she would have driven something… cooler? I guess? But she is pretty cool already, she doesn’t need a cool car to make her look cool.

I park in an empty spot, exit my cool-but-also-very-shitty vehicle, and make my way over to Yasha. There is a moment where both of us don’t seem to know how to greet each other. She goes for a handshake, I go for a fist bump, and there are some awkward seconds where we freeze until we seem to decide that a high five is a good medium between the two attempts.

“I’m glad you could make it! I’ve been here a few times to do tastings and they have just the best beer here, I can’t wait for you to try it.”

“I’m excited to try it, I tend to drink harder liquor than beer, but if you recommend this place then I don’t see why I wouldn’t like it. Shall we head inside?”

Hard liquor? A woman after my own heart. I nod, and we walk inside. There are a few other people here for the tour, and we join them. I’ve been on the tour a couple of times, but I love it anyways. Yasha seems to be having fun, which makes me happy. I’m glad I didn’t choose a place that would bore her.

Finally, we get to the tasting room. We each get to taste each of the 4 beers they make here. Thankfully, they don’t give us large glasses, so we don’t get drunk on beer samples. I like the samples, but then again, I really like this brewery. Judging by facial expressions, Yasha likes 2 of them, which is fair, not all beer is for everyone.

The brewery tour guide quickly shuttles us outside so the next tour group can use the sample room. A few people start walking back to their cars, but a sign says that the brewery grounds are free for everyone to walk in.

“It’s a nice day out, shall we take a walk?” I suggest.

She looks up, shielding her eyes from the sun, and nods. We end up walking through the grounds for an hour or so. We don’t speak much, just enjoying the nature. Eventually, we end up back at the parking lot. I walk her to her car.

“That was really fun. Maybe we can do this again sometime?”

She turns to me. “I’d like that. Maybe next week?”

Before I can affirm, she pecks me on the cheek before quickly getting in her car, starting the engine, and pulling out of the parking lot. I stand here for a good 5 minutes, out of shock. Touching my face, I realize that it must be very red, because it is warm to the touch. I get in my car, take a deep breath, and then pump my fists. Yes! My Gay Brain was correct! She likes me! I like her!

I drive home in the best spirits I've been in for weeks. That night when I attempt sleep, it does not come – not out of anxiety, not out of thinking about Yasha, but out of excitement for whatever next week brings.


End file.
